


Two Truths and a Lie

by enifmiimfine (gahhhastly)



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drinking Games, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Post-Canon, every fox gets a turn in the spotlight, tumblr fic remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:48:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28916367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gahhhastly/pseuds/enifmiimfine
Summary: Remix of my tumblr bullet fic of the foxes playing two truths and a lie, including the stories behind their truths and the inspirations for their lies.BONUS: Neil gets Andrew to play in private later.Chapter 1: Remix of the bullet fic in a more traditional narrative format (5037 words)Chapter 2: Andreil play on the roof (including new content not on the tumblr post) (1880 words)Chapter 3: Original format bullet fic, same as it appeared on tumblr (3816 words)
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 6
Kudos: 135
Collections: Potential (Post-Canon Fox Stories)





	1. Imagine the Foxes playing two truths and a lie

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline for this is the end of the girl’s last year, so a year after the end of the series. Also it’s 2014, I have my justifications but all I'm going to say here is I don’t think the series took place in ‘06. It’s not even really relevant to this fic, but there are one or two small cultural references that make more sense if you know I had 2014 in mind.
> 
> If you've read the bullet fic, its a lot of the same information. There are a few details from the original that didn’t make it in this, but there are also some new bits!
> 
> Also you can find the original tumblr post [here](https://enifmiimfine.tumblr.com/post/617476342199533568/imagine-the-foxes-playing-two-truths-and-a-lie) if you want.

One night, after the season is over and they’re all done with finals, the Foxes are all hanging out in the girls’ room. They’re all relaxing and having a pretty good time. Kevin, Matt, Nicky, and Aaron are already wasted, while Allison and Dan are pleasantly tipsy. Renee is happily sipping a soda, Andrew has his personal bottle of whiskey at his side, although it's still 4/5ths full, and Neil has been nursing the same gin and tonic since he sat down.

Allison has been trying for over a year, unsuccessfully, to get Neil to loosen up a bit more. He’ll have a drink with them once and a while, but no one has seen him drunk yet. Allison thinks it's unfair since he’s seen everyone else drunk, and decides to entice him with a game she knows he’ll like.

“Let’s play two truths and a lie.” She announces. Everyone perks up or at least grumbles an agreement, except Andrew and Neil who are sitting on a desk by the window having a quiet conversation and don’t move. Allison looks at Renee.

“Neil, Andrew, would you like to play?” Renee asks, getting their attention.

Andrew just takes a sip of whiskey but Neil says, “What’s the game?”

“Everyone takes a turn saying three statements about themselves, two of which are true, and one that’s a lie. But you have to mix up the order, obviously. Then everyone else has to guess which statement was a lie. Whoever gets it wrong has to drink, and if everyone gets it right the person whose turn it is has to drink.” Explains Allison. “The game was pretty much made for you, Neil.”

Neil rolls his eyes at the dig but hops off the desk to join the others around the coffee table. He turns one last time to look at Andrew again, silently inviting him to play, even though Neil knows it's the last thing he would want to do. Andrew doesn't say anything but takes another sip of whiskey, and Neil sits on the floor next to Renee. Matt and Dan have already started lining up shots and they pass a glass to everyone.

“Okay, I’ll go first.” Allison says from her perch on the couch, and in an instant all emotion is wiped from her face. When she talks again her voice is calm and steady.

“My first car was a Toyota Camry, my prom dress cost over $10,000, and I once made out with Miley Cyrus.”

Her face doesn’t twitch and her voice never waivers, but Renee’s played poker with her before and she knows her tells. Whenever she’s bluffing, Allison picks at her cuticles on her left hand with her left thumb. She never looks down at it, and Renee is sure that Allison isn’t even aware that she's doing it. It’s hard for most people to look away from Allison’s face, so she usually gets away with it. It took Renee longer than she’d like to admit to catch on.

Nicky, Aaron, and Matt don’t believe she made out with Miley Cyrus, while Dan and Kevin don’t believe that her first car was a Toyota. Renee and Neil say that she’s lying about her prom dress.

“It was the prom dress,” Allison says, slightly annoyed that Renee and Neil guessed correctly, “You five, drink.”

They all cheers and take their shots, after swallowing, Nicky says, “You’ve hooked up with Miley Cyrus!?”

“Yeah.” is all Allison says in response, twisting her hair over her shoulder and looking blasé.

“You’ve got to give us more than that!” Matt says.

Allison sighs like it's no big deal, but now she’s also smirking so they all know she’s enjoying bragging, “We met at a club through mutual friends, I’m hot, she’s hot, we made out. She gave me her number but I wasn’t looking for more than that.”

As she finishes her sentence she starts to get a glazed look in her eye that Dan and Renee recognize as her thinking about Seth, who she was probably dating at the time. No one else seems to notice, but Dan looks worriedly at Renee and tries to pull Allison back into the moment.

“Okay but why was your first car a Toyota Miss Richy Rich?” Dan asks. Allison gives her a small smile in thanks for distracting her from her thoughts and clears her throat.

“My parents wanted me to learn to drive in something safe that wouldn’t draw a lot of attention. But don’t worry, I got an upgrade after three weeks.” She flashes her brightest smile and everyone laughs.

No one asks about her prom dress, how much it actually cost. The truth is, Allison had ordered a custom Zac Posen dress that would have cost well over ten thousand dollars, but before everything was finalized, she decided to enroll at PSU. Her parents cut her off after that, and she hadn’t turned 18 yet so she didn’t have access to her trust fund.

She ended up wearing a dress she found at a vintage consignment shop. She had to do all the alterations herself, but she found that she really enjoyed it, and she was still the best dressed at the prom. The experience actually led to her decision to study fashion design at Palmetto. She planned on going pro anyway, so she picked the major she thought would be the most fun.

Matt is up next, and as soon as everyone’s attention turns on him he can’t stop snickering. He takes a deep breath to try and control his giggles.

“I’ve swam with sharks,” he says, his face contorting in a failed effort to try and keep a neutral expression. “My favorite flowers are sunflowers,” he starts holding his breath, and his eyes are practically crossing at this point in his attempt to hold back his laughter.

After a concerted effort he chokes out, “My favorite city in the world is Newark, New Jersey.” Once the words are out he falls back onto the couch cushions and starts laughing hysterically with his hands gripped over his stomach.

It’s obvious to everyone which is the lie, but even so Dan and Neil take the opportunity to show off their Matt trivia.

“He and his mom call each other to watch Shark Week ‘together’ every year since they swam with sharks while visiting her family in the Philippines.” Neil says.

“Yeah, I know, he’s explained the harmful repercussions of whale shark feeding to me a hundred times.” Dan says, “His favorite flowers are definitely sunflowers, I get them for him every year on our anniversary.”

“I didn’t know that.” Neil says, looking excited at the new information. “But I do know that Matt hates New Jersey!”

Matt finally catches his breath and sits back up. “Yeah well that hate is deserved,” he says, wiping tears from his eyes. “Name one good thing out of New Jersey, huh? Just one thing? You can’t!”

There were a lot of things about his childhood and adolescence that Matt tried to forget, or else made sure to remember in order to insure he didn’t grow up to do the same things the adults around him did. One thing he couldn’t and didn’t want to change was that he was a New Yorker, through and through.

Matt had been raised on the Upper East Side, in the epicenter of obscene wealth and privilege. His dad Donald was a plastic surgeon who came from old family money, but his relationship with them was strained. It only got worse when Matt’s grandparents disapproved of Matt’s mom, Randy.

Randy was born in America but her parents had immigrated from the Philippines. That was Donald’s family’s first issue with the match, but not nearly the last. If Randy had come from money, or gone to college, or at least had a respectable job, the Boyds may have begrudgingly accepted their marriage. But she had grown up poor and became a successful professional boxer. She did actually graduate from community college, but the Boyds didn’t count that.

They refused to see Donald again and didn’t go to the wedding. It wasn’t until Matt was born that they broke their silence, because they were desperate to know their grandson. Unfortunately, Randy and Donald’s relationship had already been hanging by a thread at that point. They had Matt in an effort to save their marriage, but Donald’s parents coming back into the picture aggravated things further.

Randy and Donald decided to separate when Matt was around four years old, but they never got divorced. Their relationship had been civil enough that they decided not to deal with lawyers, and neither of them had ever been overly concerned with money. Matt stayed with his father in New York while his mother traveled for work 45+ weeks out of the year. Matt’s grandparents helped his dad hire acceptable nannies.

When Matt started fourth grade at nine years old he had still never been in any area of the city besides the Upper East Side. He’d traveled to visit his dad’s parents in Connecticut and had been to his mom’s parents’ house upstate a few times, but his neighborhood was all he knew of the five boroughs.

That year there was a new boy in his class, Metin. The other kids picked on him because he was on a scholarship and his sneakers and backpack were older and worn in. Matt didn’t like it when the other kids were mean to him, so he sat with him at lunch. Matt was fairly popular, had always been big, and everyone knew that his mom was a boxer, so no one dared to mess with them. He and Metin quickly became best friends, and it was the best thing to ever happen to Matt.

Metin lived in Queens and took the subway to school, all by himself. Matt had never even been on the subway before, even with an adult. At first, Matt’s grandparent-approved nanny wouldn’t let Matt go to Metin’s house for a playdate, and Matt had to resort to asking his Dad directly.

The only time Matt ever really saw his Dad was at dinner on Tuesday nights, which Donald set aside for the two of them to “catch up.” Matt loved getting to spend time with his dad, but he hated when he had to ask him for something. He always seemed to get sad when Matt asked for anything, whether it was if he could get a bicycle or if his Dad would come to his school play. Still, Donald said yes to everything Matt asked for, except when it was something that would involve Donald spending more time with him.

As an adult, Matt knew that sadness he observed was actually his father’s guilt at not being a better dad. He hated himself for hardly spending any time with Matt, but he didn’t know how to be a better father and he chose to not even try. At that time his dad was already partying harder than she should, and it wouldn’t be long until his addiction pulled him down further. It wasn’t until Matt got sober himself that he figured that out though.

When Matt told his Dad that his nanny wouldn’t let him go to Metin’s house because it was in Queens, Donald made sure that the nanny knew Matt was allowed to do whatever he wanted. So that Friday after school Matt went on the subway with Metin for the first time in his life. He told his nanny he wanted to go alone, but she would come in a car to pick him up later that night.

Metin’s house was half the size of Matt’s apartment and nine people lived there. Him, his parents, two of his grandparents, his uncle, his two sisters, and one of his cousins. They all spoke Turkish in the house and dinner was a loud, crowded, meal of foods that Matt had never heard of before and conversations he couldn’t understand, and he loved every minute of it.

It reminded him of the visits he had gone on with his mom upstate to her parent’s house. It had been over a year since they had last gone, but he remembered eating all new foods and listening to his mom talk to them in Tagalog. He remembered them hugging and doting on Matt, and his mom laughing and smiling, and dancing in their big yard outside.

After that first dinner at Metin's, Matt was given more freedom from his nanny, and by the time he was in fifth grade, his dad stopped hiring a nanny altogether. Donald’s drug habits started getting more and more concerning, but he was able to hide it from Randy because Metin’s family made sure Matt was being taken care of. With his new freedom, Matt and Metin explored all of the city together, and Matt fell in love with New York.

“Bruce Springsteen.” Aaron says, surprising everyone and slurring slightly. “He’s from New Jersey.”

“Yeah but his music is only good because of the pain that being from New Jersey caused him.” Matt counters.

“Okay, enough, Matt you have to drink!” Dan says, cutting Matt off before he can get into his rant mode.

Dan is next and she starts talking before Matt’s shot glass hits the table. She decides to try the “one of these statements is so out there and crazy it can’t be a lie...or is it?” method.

She sits up straight and says, “I shot a shotgun once, as a kid my favorite food was celery with ranch dressing, and when I was 18 I won the lottery but the ticket was ruined and I couldn’t claim the money.”

Nicky immediately says, “Obviously you never won the lottery, how would you even know if the ticket was destroyed?”

Dan is ready with an explanation though. “Well, it was right before I actually turned 18,” she says, “You know I was working at the strip club? I used the first dollar I made from my tips every week and my fake ID to play lotto, and I played the same numbers every time. I had been doing it for a few months when my numbers were picked, but by that point playing was more of a habit than anything else and I wasn’t too careful with my tickets. I searched for it everywhere and found that I left it in my jeans pocket when I did my laundry.”

Allison is staring at Dan intently, looking for any indicator that she’s making the story up. “What were the numbers?” She asks.

“18-31-36-43-47 and 20.” Dan says without a second's hesitation.

Allison tilts her head as she stares at Dan.

“How much was the prize?” Nicky asks, with his mouth slightly open in disbelief.

“$53 million.” Dan tells him, and he makes a sound like a wounded animal while Matt gasps.

“I call bullshit.” Allison says, crossing her arms over her chest and sitting back. Dan narrows her eyes slightly but otherwise just shrugs and waits for everyone else’s guess.

Neil, Kevin, and Renee agree with Allison. Matt says she’s never shot a gun, and Aaron and Nicky say that her favorite food wasn’t celery.

Once everyone has said their guess, Dan says, “I never won the lottery, LOL.” actually pronouncing the letters L-O-L.

“But babe!” Matt cries, “You hate guns!”

“Sweetie, I grew up in a trailer park in North Dakota. You really think I’ve never shot a gun before?”

“Okay but what kid likes celery!” Nicky pouts.

“This one, now drink you three.” Dan says, and they do.

“How’d you come up with the numbers so quick?” Neil asks, knowing how hard it can be to do something like that under pressure.

“Well, part of the story was true. I did used to play lotto every week with the same numbers, I just never actually won.” Dan explains.

“Were there any significance to the numbers?” Renee asks.

“I got them out of a fortune cookie.” Dan shrugs. “It said, ‘Failure is not defeat until you stop trying.’ which I liked, but I stopped playing lotto once Wymack recruited me.”

Renee beamed at Dan and she smiled back. “Okay Hemmick, you're up.” Dan tells him.

Nicky starts humming and tapping his chin. Whenever someone tries to say anything, he starts humming aggressively louder.

Finally, after waiting five minutes, Kevin shouts over him, “I’m going because Nicky obviously can’t come up with anything.”

Nicky jumps across Kevin's lap so he is sprawled completely over him and says “No no no no no, I’ve got it!”

Without moving off of Kevin he says, “I’m allergic to shellfish, I dyed my hair green once, and I’ve read all the twilight books three times”

Nicky sits back in his own seat looking pleased with himself. Before anyone actually takes a guess though, Andrew, without even turning to look at him says, “Nicky, those are all true.” in his bored, flat voice.

Nicky opens his mouth to protest, realizes Andrew is right and yells, “Fuck!” before slamming another shot.

Everyone else is laughing, and Allison asks, “Why on earth would you ever dye your hair green?”

“Well, I was trying to dye it blond.” he shoots a dirty look at Andrew hasn't moved and doesn’t appear to be paying any attention, but now they all know he is to some extent. “When I first came back from Germany to take custody of these assholes, it was really hard in the beginning because, you know, I had to go to the school and courts and stuff with them and people would give me all of these crazy looks. Part of it was cause I was so young, and I’m sure some of it was because I’m just so handsome,” he jokes, trying not to bring the mood down too much, “but I know a lot of it was because I'm brown. Some people were too polite, or at least too worried about keeping their jobs to say anything, but others weren't. Even the ones who didn't mention it, I know they were all thinking it every time I said I was family. One day I just had too much and I decided to dye my hair blond, and I asked Andrew and Aaron for help.”

“That seems like a good idea.” Dan says sarcastically and Matt, Allison, and Kevin giggle.

“Yeah,” Nicky says, smiling, “I don’t know what I was thinking. I was still trying to bond with them I guess. Anyway, Aaron said he didn’t want to help but Andrew said he would. He even bought the dye and put it on me and washed it out in the kitchen sink. After though, when I went to look in the mirror, I saw he used green dye.” Nicky grabbed and pulled at his hair and everyone laughed.

“Yeah, well, you were being an idiot.” Aaron says, surprising everyone for the second time that night by defending Andrew. “It was stupid to try and change how you looked just because people were dumb enough to think that families need to look alike or be the same race.” Andrew actually looked up at Aaron’s words, but Aaron refused to make eye contact.

“That’s pretty much what Andrew said too. But he made sure to let me know that family didn’t actually mean anything to him anyway, no matter what I looked like. But anyway, I dyed it back as soon as my roots grew in, but it did get me more numbers than usual at Eden’s while I kept it.” Nicky says, sticking his tongue out to emphasize his words.

“Were you Team Edward or Team Jacob?” Renee asks.

“Team Edward all the way,” He says, turning to Renee, “But have you read the new theories about how Bella is actually gay? I can totally see it.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Neil and Kevin ask at the same time, Neil sounding confused and Kevin sounding annoyed. Everyone else starts laughing, and Kevin clears his throat loudly.

“It’s my turn.” Kevin says. Everyone is pretty sloshed at this point, and Kevin’s words are slurring a bit.

“I played a game of pick up basketball once, I know all the lyrics to ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire,’ and I’ve traveled to over a dozen countries.” he says.

Matt starts hysterically laughing again, “You know all the lyrics to We Didn’t Start the Fire?! Oh my god, Kevin you are such a nerd!” Everyone else starts laughing again too.

“Maybe I do, maybe it’s the lie!” Kevin says petulantly, his arms crossed over his chest.

“C’mon, Kevin,” Dan says, “Everyone knows you’ve never played a sport besides Exy in your life. Will you sing it for us? Please, please, please!”

Allison, Nicky, and Matt join in on Dan’s begging, all shouting over one another.

“It would be lovely to hear you sign.” Renee says. She doesn’t raise her voice but everyone somehow hears her over the clamor.

“Maybe later.” Kevin grumbles as he blushes. Allison pats Renee on the back.

“Why is ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ nerdy?” Neil asks.

“You don’t know the song?” Matt asks.

“It sounds familiar, but I don’t really know what it is.” Neil explains.

“Well now you have to sing it later!” Dan says to Kevin, who sighs but nods his head. He hasn’t really sung in a long time, but thinking about it now, he doesn’t think he’ll mind.

Kevin’s mom had been a big music fan, she loved everything from classical to country, but one of her favorite artists was Billy Joel. After she died and Kevin moved into Evermore, he pretty much forgot about her love of music. All the music at the Nest was all chosen for pragmatic reasons, like its BPM and ability to pump the players up.

Until one day, when Kevin was around 15 years old, a rebellious Raven played his own music while training in the weight room. He and his partner were the only ones in there until Riko and Kevin showed up, and they turned it off as soon as they realized they had come in. Still, Kevin had heard some of “Only the Good Die Young,” and for the first time in a long time had a vivid memory of his mother, singing along to the radio with a big smile on her face, drumming her hands on the steering wheel of the car.

He had asked the boys what was playing, and Riko scoffed at the name Billy Joel. That night while Riko was sleeping, Kevin downloaded Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits and listened until he fell asleep, and he continued listening to it for weeks. Slowly he started venturing out to other artists and remembering more of his mother's favorite songs from his childhood, but “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was one of his favorites because of his love of history.

He could never sing along at the Nest with Riko sleeping in the bed next to his, but he was honestly kind of excited to sing it for the Foxes.

“Okay Aaron, your turn!” Nicky says, bouncing a little in his seat.

Aaron is drunk enough at this point to spill some truths he otherwise never would. And thanks to the relentless teasing he goes on to face over the years following this night, he will wish for the rest of his life that he never had.

He looks out towards the window dreamily and starts with, “When I was little, I wanted to be a figure skater when I grew up.”

Everyone else goes completely silent and still, unsure whether to laugh or not as Aaron continues staring off into the distance.

Before anyone reacts Aaron says, “The first time I got high I thought the squirrels in the tree in my backyard wanted to adopt me as their squirrel king, and I hate Taylor Swift.”

Everyone is still silently staring at Aaron, except Neil, who is looking at Andrew. He’s wondering if Andrew knew these things about Aaron. They seem to have some kind of twin connection where they know some things about each other without having to say it, but that’s usually limited to how they feel about things, or even physical sensations like when one of them is hungry. Neil wonders how much of their pasts and hopes and dreams they’ve actually shared, and if that kind of stuff would come up in their sessions with Betsy.

Andrew did know that Aaron wanted to be a figure skater when he was little. Aaron told him when he first move to South Carolina, when Andrew made it clear that Tilda was not his mother, and never would be. Aaron was scared that Andrew would decide that it wasn’t worth putting up with Tilda to be Aaron’s brother. Scared that Andrew would realize that Aaron isn’t worth the trouble.

So even though it was embarrassing, he shared one of his few really good memories of Tilda with him. He told Andrew how when he was around five years old he watched the winter olympics on TV and fell in love with figure skating. Tilda never bothered to get him skating lessons or anything, but one day, when Aaron was seven, there was an attempt to revive the Ice Capades. Aaron never thought he would get to go, but Tilda surprised him with tickets. They went together and he actually had a good day.

Andrew hadn’t responded to the story then, and he wasn’t giving away anything now either. He’s watching the group from his isolated perch on the desk, and notices Neil looking at him. They make eye contact for a brief moment before the silence is broken.

“Nah man, you love T. Swift, you can’t deny it!” Nicky says boisterously, and the rest of the Foxes silently agree to ignore the rest of the new information about Aaron until he sobers up a bit and will be more fun to tease.

Everyone except Renee guesses that him hating Taylor Swift is the lie, and Renee only said she thought he was lying about the squirrels because she didn’t want him to have to take another shot.

“I used to hate Taylor Swift!” Aaron says defensively. “It’s not my fault Katelyn listens to her all the time, and looks so cute when she dances…” he trails off as everyone laughs.

“Okay, my turn.” Renee says smiling. “I can juggle up to 7 balls at a time, I have never drank diet soda, and I once had a pet turtle named Vincent.”

Matt, Allison, Dan and Nicky all start talking over each other once again about what they think is the lie. After a minute of everyone yelling Dan is able to get them to quiet down to ask Renee a question.

“Why’d you name the turtle Vincent?” Dan asks, but Renee knows what she's trying to do and only shrugs in answer.

“Where’d you learn how to juggle?” asks Matt, but again Renee only shrugs.

“I’ve never seen her drink a diet soda.” Allison says, scrunching up her nose like she’s trying to remember.

“I say it’s the turtle.” Nicky says. Kevin and Dan agree with him.

“I don’t think she can juggle.” Matt says, and Allison agrees after considering for another moment.

“Soda.” is all Neil says, and Aaron points at Neil silently to put in his vote.

Everyone turns to Renee and she says, “It was the soda, I don’t like diet, but I have tasted it before.” she gives Allison an apologetic look.

“Fine, but how has it never come up that you’re a master fucking juggler?” Allison says incredulously.

“It’s just something I’ve always been able to do, but it wouldn’t be appropriate to do it at practice and we’re not really around a lot of balls much otherwise.” Renee says, and Nicky snorts into his drink at the mention of balls, and their absence from Renee’s life.

“You have to show us!” Matt begs.

“I’ll do it later if Kevin agrees to sing for us.” Renee smiles at Kevin.

“I already said I would!” Kevin says huffily.

“Okay, then I’ll juggle”

“Why’d you name your turtle Vincent?” Neil asks.

“I didn’t name him myself, it was a gift from one of my mother’s boyfriends who took a liking to me when I was little. He was awful to her but had a soft spot for me, and after a few months when they broke up, he gave it to me as a parting gift. I don’t know what happened to it after my mother and I were arrested though.” She looks down at her hands, a guilty expression on her face.

“The pigs call animal control for pets.” Andrew says carelessly, but Renee looks up and smiles at him in thanks for assuaging her worries.

“Okay, Neil’s up!” Allison says and turns to look at him. “Hang on a second, have you taken any shots?” she asks, her eyes narrowed.

“Um, no?” Neil says, “I haven’t guessed wrong.”

“That’s fucking ridiculous.” Dan says, “How are you so good at this?”

“I know you guys.” is all Neil says.

“The whole point of playing was to get you drunk!” Allison says, annoyed. “Whatever, take your turn, but try to make it interesting, okay?”

Neil sits and thinks for a few minutes silently. Not as long as Nicky took, but long enough that Aaron says, “Come on this should be easy for you! You lied to us all for a year, what’s the problem, the truth?”

Neil shoots him a dirty look and takes a few more seconds to come up with what to say.

“My mom and I once helped deliver a baby at a truck stop in Alberta, I’ve been bitten by a camel, and I can speak 7 languages”

Everyone just stares at him.

“Two of those things are true?” Matt finally asks.

“Yeah.” Neil says, shrugging.

Everyone is silent again and Nicky turns to look at Andrew for help. Andrew is staring Neil down, like if he looks long enough the truth will appear on his face and doesn’t notice Nicky trying to get his attention.

“It’s gotta be the camel, right?” says Matt.

“No, I’d say the baby.” says Allison, “Can you imagine this lunatic with a baby? Or a pregnant woman for that matter?”

“Seven languages though? How could your brain even work with seven different languages up there?” says Nicky.

After a few more rounds of back and forth, Matt, Renee, and Aaron guess the camel, Allison, Kevin, and Dan guess the baby, and Nicky sticks with the languages.

They all turn to Neil expectantly and he says, “It was the first one, we were just outside Vancouver, in British Columbia, not Alberta.”

“But you, Neil Josten, have helped deliver a baby?” Allison asks.

“Technically I wasn’t Neil Josten yet…”

Everyone groans and they all take a shot in unison that could rival the Ravens’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The explanations of Neil's answers come in the next chapter, but   
> if your interested in the few other answers that weren't explained here, I've highlighted the corresponding bullets in chapter 3 so you can easily read just those!


	2. That's the Lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the roof just the two of them, Neil gets Andrew to take a turn playing two truths and a lie by sharing the stories behind his camel bite and helping deliver a baby.

Later that night after everyone else passed out, Neil and Andrew went up to the roof. Andrew was still nursing his bottle of whisky but Allison had gotten Neil to take a couple shots earlier, on top of his gin and tonic, so he wasn’t drinking anymore. 

After they finished the game, Dan found an instrumental version of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” on YouTube and got Kevin to sing while Allison hunted around for things for Renee to juggle. Neil had been vaguely impressed by both of them, Kevin didn’t flub the nonsensical lyrics once, not even when Nicky tried to join in with obviously wrong words or just plain gibberish, and Renee had gotten eight objects in the air before she dropped one. 

The party devolved into more nonsense after that, but it went on for another few hours. The girls would be graduating and moving out in less than a week. Allison was the first Fox to be signed to a professional league, and she was going off to play for the New Orleans Jesters, Dan got a job as an assistant coach somewhere in New York, and Renee was going to work for a nonprofit that involved a lot of traveling. None of them knew when they’d all be together again. 

Neil looked out over the horizon and wondered what next year would be like without them. Dealing with the new freshmen this year had been difficult enough, but now he would be the only captain, without Dan for backup. And he would miss Allison and Renee’s presence on the court as well. The new dealers were good, and the replacement goalie they recruited was probably slightly better than Renee, but Neil would miss them all the same.

He felt Andrew tugging his cigarette out of his hand and turned to look at him. Andrew's cigarette was no where to be seen, probably finished and thrown off the roof. He pulled Neil’s cigarette into his mouth and blew the smoke into Neil’s face.

“A camel?” Andrew asked, and Neil smiled. It still felt special whenever Andrew took an interest in something Neil had said, especially something that he could have just as easily tossed aside as uninteresting or unimportant. Even though over the past year it had been happening with more frequency, it was still relatively rare, at least compared to the hundreds of questions it felt like his teammates asked him constantly.  


“If you want the story you have to take a turn. Two truths and a lie, really try to trick me.” Neil said. It had been all too easy with his other teammates to ferret out the lies, and in all honesty he was doubtful that even Andrew could fool him. Reading people’s body language and figuring out when they were hiding something was essential to his survival on the run, it had become second nature to him. And he knew Andrew better than anybody.

“If you want to know something ask.” Andrew replied. He finished the cigarette and flicked the butt off the roof then turned to look into Neil’s eyes. “We’re done with our truth game, remember?”

“This is different, it's just for fun.”  The alcohol must still be in Neil’s system, because he couldn’t remember the last time he thought of telling the truth for _ fun.  _ Sure it’d gotten easier since he shared most of his deep dark secrets with Andrew and the Foxes and a year ago, but it was never  _ fun _ for him. Sometimes it still felt like he had to force a truth out of himself, push it through his throat while it clawed at his insides to try and stay hidden. 

Andrew raised his eyebrows at the uncharacteristic statement and said, “Fine, you tell me the stories about the camel and the baby, and I’ll take a turn.”

“You don’t want to know what languages I can speak?” Neil asked.

“English, German, French, Russian, Hebrew, Czech, Greek.” Andrew said.

Neil opened his mouth in surprise. “How did you know about Czech?” The first four were obvious, and his Judaism and time he lived in Israel had come up last Christmas. He guessed Andrew had picked up on the Greek from the few times they went to that restaurant that Kevin liked, where the staff all chattered in Greek nonstop around them, but how he’d figured out the Czech was a complete mystery to Neil.

Andrew didn’t say anything, nor did his expression change, but his eyes glittered mischievously. Neil could tell he was enjoying being mysterious and he wouldn’t get an answer to that question tonight, so he moved on to tell his stories.

Andrew watched him intently as he explained how he and his mother spent a few days in Dubai to get some papers from a specialist there before traveling back to North America, after they had been hiding out all around Europe for years. It wasn’t too difficult to find good forgeries of EU documents wherever they were, but when Mary decided it was time to go back across the Atlantic they needed to go a little out of their way to get quality papers. 

The man who forged the documents did his business out of a racetrack where they held camel races. To get to his office, they had to travel through the back part of the track that the jockeys used to transport the camels around and get them into position. Neil remembered the smell making him scrunch up his nose involuntarily, and how he had to keep looking down to avoid stepping in piles of camel shit.

While he was looking down he had gotten too close to one of the camels just as it’s jockey started beating it. It bit his arm, but luckily before it could really clamp down the jockey landed another blow that made it open its mouth to scream in protest. Neil was out of reach in a millisecond, with the camel’s scream ringing in his ears. Andrew told him how lucky he really was, informing him that camels can bite clean through muscle and even break bone. Neil didn’t question how Andrew knew this, but figured his luck had balanced out when he immediately stepped in a large pile of camel dung and got told off by his mother.

Andrew prompted him for the story about helping the pregnant woman give birth, and he switched gears. It had happened when Neil and his mom were on their way to Seattle. It was the middle of the night and they stopped to get gas a few hours out from Vancouver when they heard a woman screaming. 

There was nothing around for miles and only one other car in the lot that had been there when they pulled in. His mother immediately dropped the gas pump and Neil was already back in the car when the screaming stopped and his mother hesitated. Neil had never seen his mom hesitate with a potential threat around before, and he listened closely to try and understand why she stopped. All he heard was a woman panting harshly, but it sounded almost as though there was a rhythm to it. 

Mary had signaled for him to get out of the car, and ordered him to grab some blankets, the first aid kit, and water bottles from the trunk and to follow her. They walked behind the locked public bathrooms, and found the woman squatting on the pavement, with tears running down her face. Mary wasn’t capable of being gentle or comforting, but she told the woman in a calm and confident voice that they were going to help. 

Neil didn’t do much, but he held the woman up and let her hold his hand and squeeze until he thought she would break it. He gave her sips of water between her contractions and did anything else his mother said. Once the baby was out, wrapped in a blanket, and in its mothers arms, Mary grabbed Neil and they left without another word to the woman. She stared after them, confused and grateful. 

Neil and his mother never spoke of it again, but Neil occasionally wondered about her. Why she was out there all alone, what that baby’s life was like, what made his mother decide to help when he had never seen her do anything altruistic before in his life. 

When he finished telling his stories he looked at Andrew expectantly, waiting for him to fulfill his end of the bargain. Andrew looked pensively out at the stars, it wasn’t long until dawn and the sky was starting to lighten from black to midnight blue. 

“The sun rises in the east,” Andrew started but Neil cut him off.

“That is such a cop out, I asked you to make it hard.” Neil said, slightly disappointed. Andrew just looked at him and Neil sighed internally, signaling with a nod that he should continue.

“Every living thing dies,” Andrew went on and paused, looking back out at the horizon. If Neil didn’t know any better he’d say Andrew was holding his breath, but that didn’t make any sense. Neil realized then that the next statement had to be the lie, and he wondered what hidden truth could be causing Andrew such distress. 

The pause went on, stretching out between them but somehow pulling Neil in closer. He desperately wanted to know what Andrew was going to say, but he wouldn’t rush him. After what felt like an hour but was probably only a few minutes, Andrew turned and looked deeply into Neil’s eyes. The sun had started to rise in earnest now, and there was enough light for Neil to see the hazel color of Andrew’s eyes, but not yet enough for them to shine with the golden light he admired whenever he got the chance.

“This is nothing.” Andrew said, still staring deeply into Neil’s eyes. Neil processed the words and felt a warmth blossoming in his chest, dangerously close to his heart. It spread outwards until his entire body felt light and hot, spreading to his face last as a smile spread over his features. 

Not his father’s cruel smile, not the polite smile he used sometimes to get what he wanted from people, not the victorious smile he wore whenever he scored a goal or won a match, and not even the friendly easy smile he had gotten more accustomed to while hanging out with the Foxes. 

This was a smile all for Andrew, that no one else could bring out in him. The smile he hid in Andrew’s neck whenever he couldn’t completely control his reaction to Neil’s kisses. The smile that bloomed whenever Andrew told him to stop looking at him like that, or when he kicked Kevin out of their dorm for the night without any explanation other than “sleep at Nicky’s.”

“That's the lie.” Neil said, and he felt giddy with it, almost lightheaded at the fact that Andrew could finally admit it, with words and not just a lack of contradiction. This is not nothing. They are not nothing. Not anymore.

“That’s the lie.” Andrew confirmed, rolling his eyes as he leaned in to kiss the smile off Neil’s face.


	3. Original Bullet Fic

# Imagine the foxes playing two truths and a lie…

  * The upperclassmen start playing it as a drinking game one night and Neil is intrigued. Andrew is also intrigued but doesn’t show it and refuses to play.
  * They are all already pretty tipsy, with Kevin, Matt, Nicky, and Aaron pretty much drunk.
  * Allison goes first, she has an amazing poker face and calmly says all three statements with no facial twitches or vocal cues. “my first car was a Toyota Camry (truth), my prom dress cost over $10k (lie), and I once made out with Miley Cyrus (truth)”
  * Renee, Neil, and Aaron guess right, Matt, Dan, Kevin, and Nicky have to drink.
  * Then it’s Matt’s turn and he is terrible, he starts snickering before he opens his mouth. “I’ve swam with sharks (truth)” he says, but he cannot control his face and it keeps contorting as he tries to maintain a neutral expression. He takes a deep breath to try and control his giggles, “my favorite flower is sunflowers (truth)” then he can’t hold it in anymore and starts hysterically laughing and chokes out, “My favorite city in the world is Newark, NJ (lie)”
  * Everyone gets it right and Matt has to drink.
  * Dan is next, she goes for the “one of these is so out there and crazy it can’t be a lie…or is it?” method. 
  * ((It is.))
  * “I’ve never shot a gun (truth), as a kid my favorite food was celery with ranch dressing (truth), and when I was 18 I won the lottery but the ticket was ruined and I couldn’t claim the money (lie)” 
  * Aaron jumps in with “Obviously you never won the lottery, how would you even know if the ticket was destroyed”
  * Dan has her story ready. “When I first turned 18, I played the same numbers every week. It went on for a few months when my numbers were picked, but by that point playing was more of a habit than anything else and I wasn’t too careful with my tickets. I searched for it everywhere and found that I left it in my jeans pocket when I did my laundry.”
  * Allison asks what the numbers were, and Dan answers with no hesitation, which makes Allison tilt her head and stare into Dan’s eyes. Dan looks back without guile, totally relaxed. 
  * Nicky is looking at her with his eyes wide and mouth slightly open and asks how much money she would have won
  * When Dan answers $53 million dollars Nicky gasps and Matt groans.
  * Neil, Renee, and Allison get it right, but everyone else falls for it.
  * When its Nicky turn he forgets to say a lie.
  * He is sitting there trying to come up with something for what feels like forever while every goads him for taking so long.
  * Finally, after waiting 5 minutes, Kevin says “I’m going because Nicky obviously can’t come up with anything” and Nicky jumps across Kevins lap and goes “No no no no no, I’ve got it!” 
  * Without moving off Kevin he says “I’m allergic to shellfish, I died my hair green once, and I’ve read all the twilight books three times“ He moves back to his spot looking pleased with himself.
  * Everyone starts discussing theories until Andrew says in his bored, flat voice, “Nicky, those are all true”
  * Nicky starts to protest, thinks for a second, then just says “Fuck!” and takes a shot.
  * Kevin rolls his eyes so hard that his entire head rotates then says, while slightly slurring, “Okay, my turn! I’ve played a game of pick up basketball once (lie), I know all the lyrics to We Didn’t Start the Fire (truth), and I’ve traveled to over a dozen countries (truth).”
  * Matt starts hysterically laughing again, “You know all the lyrics to We Didn’t Start the Fire! oh my god Kevin you are such a nerd!” everyone else starts laughing at Kevin too.
  * “Maybe I do, maybe it’s the lie!” 
  * “Everyone knows you’ve never played a sport besides Exy in your life Kevin” Dan says, “Will you sing it for us? Please, please, please!”
  * Allison, Nicky, and Matt join Dan in asking Kevin to sing. Renee even says, “It would be lovely to hear you sing it Kevin” to which Kevin blushes a little and answers, “Maybe later” and then takes his shot. 
  * Aaron is drunk enough at this point to spill some truths he otherwise never would, and will wish for the rest of his life that he never had. 
  * “When I was little, I wanted to be a figure skater when I grew up.(truth)”
  * Everyone goes completely silent and stares at him unsure whether to laugh or not but he doesn’t realize and continues
  * “The first time I got high I thought the squirrels in the tree wanted to adopt me as their squirrel king (truth), and I hate Taylor Swift (lie)”
  * No one says anything at first, and just when Aaron starts to realize something is up, Nicky says “Nah man, you LOVE T. Swift, you can’t deny it!”
  * They collectively make a silent agreement to ignore this new information about Aaron until he sobers up a bit and can either defend himself, or will be more fun to tease.
  * In the end, everyone but Renee guesses right, but she guessed wrong on purpose because she didn’t think that Aaron should be having any more to drink.
  * When it’s Renee’s turn, she smiles sweetly and says, ”I can juggle up to 7 balls (truth), I have never drank diet soda (lie), and I once had a pet turtle named Vincent (truth).”
  * No one is confident about which is the lie and it is the longest the foxes debate after anyones turn. It doesn’t help that Renee refuses to answer questions, and whenever someone tries to ask her anything she just smiles and shrugs. 
  * It comes out to Neil and Aaron getting it right, while everyone else has to drink.
  * “How the fuck has it never come up that you’re a master juggler?” Allison asks angrily
  * “It wouldn’t be appropriate to do it at practice, and we’re not really around balls much otherwise.”
  * Everyone asks for a demonstration, “I will juggle later if Kevin will sing.”
  * Everyone looks at Kevin who sighs but says “Okay, fine!” 
  * They all cheer then wait eagerly for Neil to go. 
  * Neil sits quietly for a little while, not as long as Nicky, but long enough that Aaron says, “Come on this should be easy for you! You lied to us all for a year, what’s the problem, the truth?”
  * Neil shoots him a dirty look but doesn’t respond for a few more seconds then says,
  * “My mom and I once helped deliver a baby at a truck stop in Alberta, I’ve been bitten by a camel, and I can speak 7 languages”
  * Everyone just stares at him.
  * “Two of those things are true?” Matt finally asks
  * “Yeah.” Neil says, shrugging. Everyone is silent again.
  * Nicky turns to Andrew for help, but he refuses to say anything. His eyes are bright with interest though and he looks at Neil for a long time. Internally, he thinks the one about helping birth a baby has something off about it.
  * After much debate, Allison, Kevin, and Matt guess the baby, Renee, Dan, and Aaron guess the camel, and Nicky says the languages, “No one can know SEVEN languages!! I won’t believe it!”
  * They all turn to Neil expectantly and he says, “It was the first one, we were just outside Vancouver, in British Columbia, not Alberta.” 
  * “But you, Neil Josten, have helped deliver a baby?” Allison asks incredulously.
  * “Technically I wasn’t Neil Josten yet…” 
  * Everyone groans. Everyone takes a shot. 
  * Cut to 15 minutes later, Renee is juggling an exy ball, some apples, and Matt’s phone while Kevin sings. Nicky tries to sing along with Kevin but definitely doesn’t know the right words, Aaron is watching Renee wide eyed, Dan and Matt are playing air guitar behind Kevin, and Allison is looking for more things for Renee to juggle. Neil and Andrew sit quietly on a desk holding cigarettes, observing their idiot friends.



## Stories Behind the Truths and Lies

#### Allison

  * _My first car was a Toyota Camry (truth)_ \- Allison’s parents wanted her to learn how to drive in a safe car that wouldn’t draw a lot of attention, so they got her a Camry. She only drove it for 3 weeks before demanding an upgrade.
  * _My prom dress cost over $10k (lie)_ \- This was almost true. She had ordered a custom Zac Posen dress but before it was finalized she made her decision to go to PSU and play Exy, and her mother canceled the order. She ended up wearing something she found in a vintage store that she altered herself. She ended up enjoying it a lot, which led to her decision to study fashion. (In my hc she played professional Exy for 3? seasons but was injured and then started her fashion line.)
  * _I once made out with Miley Cyrus (truth)_ \- While out clubbing one night she met Miley through mutual friends, they were attracted to each other, they made out. Miley asked for her number but Allison wasn’t looking for anything more than a hook up.



#### Matt

  * _I’ve swam with sharks (truth)_ \- He did this with his mom on a vacation and they both loved it. They also have a tradition where they watch at least one night of shark week together, or at least call each other to talk while they are both watching.
  * _My favorite flower is sunflowers (truth)_ \- No story lol I just think he would like sunflowers. 
  * _My favorite city in the world is Newark, NJ (lie)_ \- I love thinking about New Yorker Matt. Raised on the Upper East Side, dad a top plastic surgeon, mom a public figure? Child grew up surrounded by serious privilege. HC that in fifth grade he made friends with a boy who was on scholarship at his school. Let’s call him… Metin. He lived in Queens? He took the subway? Matt goes to his house one day and it is 1/8th the size of his apartment and there are 9 people living there; Metin’s parents, two grandparents, his uncle, his two sisters, and his cousin. They all speak Turkish in the house and it’s loud and crowded but so full of life and love and Matt loves it. He and Metin grew apart when Matt started using, but before that they were best friends for years and explored the city together, Matt learning about and experiencing so much culture that for the first 9 years of his life he didn’t know existed. When Nicky wanted to go to Times Square for New Years Matt knew he had to be a good host and take them but inside he was DYING. I’m getting off track. No New Yorker could ever like Newark. I’m not convinced anybody could like Newark. It is indeed, very laughable. 



#### Dan

  * _I’ve never shot a gun (truth)_ \- Dan hates guns and refuses to shoot one.
  * _As a kid my favorite food was celery with ranch dressing (truth)_ \- Idk I just thought this was cute. And also thinking about young Dan who didn’t have a lot of access to healthy foods getting celery sticks and ranch with her free school lunch and getting SO excited. Trading her cookie to a classmate for their celery.
  * _When I was 18 I won the lottery but the ticket was ruined and I couldn’t claim the money (lie)_ \- I like to think this is part true. After Dan turned 18 but before she was recruited for the Foxes, she played lotto a lot, always with the same numbers that she got from a fortune cookie that said, “Failure is not defeat until you stop trying.” She stopped playing once she signed with Wymack.



#### Nicky (all truths)

  * _I’m allergic to shellfish_ \- Mostly I love that Andrew knew all these things about Nicky, especially his allergy because he’s always looking out to make sure Nicky doesn’t eat something he can’t.
  * _I died my hair green once_ \- At first, when he took custody of the twins and started showing up for them at school at stuff, he hated the looks he got. He was a 19 year old kid who was supposed to be their guardian? Not to mention the way people eyed his skin and hair when he said he was family. One day he decided to dye his hair blond and he asked Andrew and Aaron to help, to try to bond. Aaron wanted nothing to do with it, but surprisingly, Andrew seem enthusiastic about the idea. He bought the dye and did everything for Nicky in the kitchen. When he was finally done roughly washing the dye out of Nicky’s hair, Nicky went to the bathroom to see how he looked and saw that Andrew had died his hair green. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh at the prank or cry because he foolishly thought he might be getting through to Andrew. When he went back to the kitchen, he tried to laugh it off and said maybe he should go to a salon to get the color right. Andrew told him he was stupid to try and change how he looked just because people were dumb enough to think that families needed to look alike. Besides, they weren’t a family anyway. _“Family” is a toxic excuse for things people put up with, a reason we accept the tragedies and inconveniences forced upon us._ (Nora’s words) Nicky was upset, and dyed his hair back to his natural color once the roots started growing in, but he reaffirmed his commitment in that moment that he would show the twins what Erik had shown him, what a family could really be. 
  * _I’ve read all the twilight books three times_ \- Nicky was a huge fan of twilight, even going to the midnight release party for the last book. He was disappointed in the movie adaptations but loved the casting and watched for the eye candy. He is loving the twilight renaissance especially the twilight is gay discourse. 



#### Kevin

  * _I’ve played a game of pick up basketball once (lie)_ \- Kevin has never played a game of basketball, or soccer, or tennis, or baseball, or any other sport for that matter and can not understand why anyone would want to.
  * _I know all the lyrics to We Didn’t Start the Fire (truth)_ \- Kayleigh Day was a big music fan, she loved everything from classical to country, but one of her favorite artists was Billy Joel. After she died and Kevin moved into Evermore, he almost forgot about her music because the music at the Nest was all chosen for pragmatic reasons, like its BPM and ability to pump the players up. One day, when Kevin was around 15 years old, a rebellious Raven played his own music while training in the weight room. He and his partner were the only ones in there until Riko and Kevin showed up, and they turned it off as soon as they realized they had come in, but Kevin heard some of “Only the Good Die Young” and for the first time in a long time had a vivid memory of his mother. He asked the boys what had been playing, and Riko scoffed at the name Billy Joel. That night while Riko was sleeping, Kevin downloaded Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits and listened until he feel asleep, and he continued listening to it for weeks until he started remembering more of his mothers songs from his childhood. We Didn’t Start the Fire was one of his favorites because history. 
  * _I’ve traveled to over a dozen countries (truth)_ \- Between travel through Europe with his mom while she spread Exy and professional appearances he made with Riko, Kevin is the most well traveled besides Neil.



#### Aaron

  * _When I was little, I wanted to be a figure skater when I grew up. (truth)_ \- When Aaron was around four or five, he watched the winter olympics on TV and fell in love with figure skating. Tilda never bothered to get him skating lessons, but one day, when Aaron was seven, there was an attempt to revive the Ice Capades. Aaron never thought he would get to go, but Tilda surprised him with tickets. It is one of the few really good memories he has of his mom. 
  * _The first time I got high I thought the squirrels in the tree wanted to adopt me as their squirrel king (truth)_ \- I just imagine Aaron trying his mom’s drugs for the first time alone in the back yard, laying flat on his back looking up at a family of squirrels, saying, “I’m king of the squirrels!!!”
  * _I hate Taylor Swift (lie)_ \- Katelyn is a HUGE Taylor Swift fan. When they first started hanging out, Aaron didn’t really like her music but didn’t want to say anything. Eventually he started associating her with Katelyn though, and he loves watching Katelyn sign and dance so much that he now genuinely enjoys her music. 



#### Renee

  * _I can juggle up to 7 balls (truth)_ \- Renee always had a natural juggling talent. She never really tried to learn, it was just always something she could do. 
  * _I have never drank diet soda (lie)_ \- She does prefer non-diet soda, but she has tried diet before.
  * _I once had a pet turtle named Vincent (truth)_ \- Vincent was a gift from one of her mother’s boyfriends, the only one Renee ever remotely like. He was horrible to her mother, but had a soft spot for Renee and treated her kindly. They broke up after a couple of months, and he gave her Vincent as a parting gift. She had him until she got arrested, she couldn’t go back home to get him and when her mother went to prison he died.



#### Neil

  * _My mom and I once helped deliver a baby at a truck stop in Alberta (lie)_ \- This happened while Neil and his mom were on the way to Seattle. It was the middle of the night and they stopped to get gas a few hours out from Vancouver when they heard a woman screaming. There was nothing around for miles and only one other car in the lot that had been there when they pulled in. His mother immediately dropped the gas pump and Neil was already back in the car when the screaming stopped and his mother hesitated. Neil had never seen his mom hesitate with a potential threat around before, and he listened closely to try and understand why she stopped. All he heard was a woman panting harshly, but it sounded almost as though there was a rhythm to it. Mary signaled for him to get out of the car, and ordered him to grab some blankets, the first aid kit, and water bottles and follow her. They walked behind the locked public bathrooms, and found the woman squatting, with tears running down her face. Mary wasn’t very gentle or comforting, but she told the woman in a calm and confident voice that they were going to help. Neil didn’t do much, but he let the woman hold his hand and squeeze until he thought she would break it. He gave her sips of water between her contractions and did anything else his mother said. Once the baby was out, wrapped in a blanket, and in its mothers arms, Mary grabbed Neil and they left without another word to the woman. She stared after them, confused and grateful. Neil and his mother never spoke of it again. 
  * _I’ve been bitten by a camel (truth)_ \- Neil and Mary spent a few days in Dubai to get some papers from a specialist there before traveling back to North America. The man did his business out of a racetrack where they held camel races. To get to his office, they had to travel through the back part of the track that the jockeys used to get the camels into position. Neil got too close to one of the camels and it bit his arm, luckily (or not), the jockey was in the middle of beating it and before it closed its mouth too tightly, landed a blow that caused the camel to immediately open its mouth again. Once he was freed, Neil was out of reach in a millisecond. 
  * _I can speak 7 languages (truth)_ \- English, German, French, Russian, Hebrew, Czech, Greek. (To clarify he can speak 7 languages but he wouldn’t necessarily call himself fluent in all 7) We all know English, German, French, and Nora had a hc that Andrew and Neil learn Russian so they can talk to each other even with the cousins around which I love. Hebrew - In my hc Neil is jewish, as are Mary and Nathan. After running away, Mary didn’t know where to go once she had left her brother. She didn’t speak any other languages besides English, but she could understand Yiddish from hearing her grandparents and sometimes her parents speaking it growing up, and she could understand Polish from her time married to Nathan. She didn’t want to go to Poland in case any of Nathan’s contacts recognized her, so she decided to go to Israel. She knew there were communities there that spoke Yiddish and she was familiar if not comfortable with Hebrew from going to temple when she was younger. But most importantly she knew Nathan didn’t have any regular contacts there. While they were there, along with learning Hebrew, Mary pretended to be interested in converting to Greek Orthodox in order to get secret Greek lessons for her and Neil. After a while but sooner than she had hoped, Mary got a warning that Nathan had figured out where they were. She didn’t think it would be wise to go directly to Greece so she decided to move them to Prague next, since Czech and Polish are fairly similar and she really had no other ideas. While in Prague she continued her and Neil’s Greek lessons, and they went on to Greece eventually. Mary didn’t want them to lose any of the languages they learned, so she came up with a system that on certain days of the week they would speak to each other in certain languages. After Mary died, Neil pretty much gave up on Czech and Hebrew because he hadn’t been surrounded by them in so long and he hadn’t used either except with Mary since they moved from Prague or Israel. They had lived in Greece for longer than they had in Prague or Israel though, moving to a few different cities, so he felt stronger with Greek. 




End file.
